Council okays coffee ordinance of Baguio City

March 22, 2020 Community Billboard

BAGUIO CITY March 17 – The City Council approved on first reading the proposed coffee ordinance of the city for the establishment of the Baguio coffee processing center and appropriating funds for skills enhancement of coffee growers.

The ordinance states it will be the policy of the city government to assist city farmers to undertake a common purpose towards the development of a Baguio coffee brand.

The ordinance mandates the coffee farmers to organize themselves into an association or cooperative to avail of trainings and the use of the coffee processing center to be set up by the city and that membership to the organization shall be strictly for the farmers and not for traders or end users.

The ordinance tasked the City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) to organize and coordinate trainings for the coffee growers from the different coffee growing barangays in the city and that the trainings shall be conducted in relation, but not limited, to farming, growing, harvesting, drying and other related agricultural activities, which can be coordinated with the agriculture department, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and other government and nongovernment agencies.

Further, the CVAO, with the assistance of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and other government agencies, shall set up the coffee processing center through the shared service facilities program and other funds needed for such purpose shall be sourced out from other government and non-government agencies.

The ordinance stipulates the services of the coffee processing center shall include depumping, hulling, grinding, roasting, sorting, vacuum packaging, impulse selling, ready for product delivery by the organization.

The ordinance encourages the farmers to use the processing center towards establishing a coffee brand for the city.

The ordinance requires the coffee processing project shall be supervised by a government council composed of set of key city government officials, DTI representative, leaders of coffee producers, highly urbanized agriculture and fisheries council, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and community-based coffee associations and that the council shall act as policy-making body to be implemented by a management team which shall be composed of a manager, quality control officer, processors, packers, marketing officer and bookkeeper.

The ordinance provides for the setting up of Baguio coffee dispensing machines that will sell the so called Baguio brew from the processing center and that the cooperative or the processing center will distribute dispensing machines in strategic locations in the market, the parks, hotels, malls and other business areas to dispense the city coffee brand where it shall be a self-generating machine to support the growth of the industry.

The trainings provided shall not be limited to nursery development, best practices of coffee planting, coffee harvesting, coffee plant technical skills, management and marketing skills, financial management and bookkeeping and character city training and values formation.

Dexter A. See/ABN